Taking advantage of the dim early morning light, Guo Xiaobei threw on a dark, thick coat and rushed out of his home. Fortunately, the hallway was dark, and after shining his flashlight around, he found no zombies; they seemed to have wandered off to other places. He dared not venture out at night—despite being a zombie now, he was unarmed and had nothing to defend himself with. The system allowed him to store a few items, but aside from checking the map, all he had left was a cursed shop where nothing could be purchased. With the items he had, he was destined to flee, not fight.

Speaking of the shop, although this area was remote and lacked large shopping centers, there were still a few small supermarkets nearby. Guo Xiaobei turned on his flashlight and began running toward the closest one.

Without electricity, there were no streetlights on, but luckily, he could still see the road in the faint light.

In the distance, he saw a few figures slowly swaying on the road ahead. Of course, Guo Xiaobei noticed the blue dots on the map; even without the alerts, he wouldn’t think that normal people would be aimlessly wandering the streets at this hour.

Guo Xiaobei intended to sneak along the wall, but the zombies weren’t as slow as he expected. Clearly, they had caught the scent of a human and were slowly turning toward him.

Having watched plenty of zombie movies and played various zombie games, the impact of encountering a real zombie in front of him was overwhelming, almost too much for Guo Xiaobei to bear.

The zombie in front of him was tattered and torn. Though its limbs were intact, the flesh was clearly rotting and blackened, with bulging eye sockets and intestines spilling out from a gaping belly... Guo Xiaobei instinctively took a step back.

Ding. Random mission: [Eliminate Low-Level Zombie]. Mission rewards: 20 experience points, 50 currency, 1 survival point. Please choose to accept or decline; the system will automatically decline for you after 20 seconds.

Accept!

Guo Xiaobei immediately accepted the mission. Given the situation, even if he chose to abandon it, this creature wouldn’t let him go.

But how could he take it down?

Watching the zombie slowly advance, Guo Xiaobei silently stepped back. The ground felt soft beneath his feet, causing him to stumble and fall. Looking down, he saw a half-decomposed limb right at his feet.

The acrid smell of blood filled his nostrils, and Guo Xiaobei felt his stomach churn.

Roar—The zombie lunged toward Guo Xiaobei.

"Ah—" No matter how heroic he sounded, Guo Xiaobei was just a young man raised in a peaceful era. In his life, he had never killed anyone, let alone zombies; he hadn't even killed a chicken. When it came to killing, it was merely ants and cockroaches in the kitchen.

As the zombies drew closer, Guo Xiaobei could almost smell the putrid stench emanating from them, and the terror rendered his mind blank.

By the time he regained his senses, the zombie lay sprawled beside him, its head crushed. In Guo Xiaobei's hands was a wooden stick, its tip smeared with filthy blood and pale yellow brain matter.

He had just swung it wildly with his eyes closed, leaving his arm temporarily weak. This stick was probably left behind by the corpse beneath him. Ultimately, the other had met a gruesome end; Guo Xiaobei didn't know how long he could endure this.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ding. [Eliminate Low-Level Zombie] Task completed. Host receives rewards: 20 experience points, 50 currency, 1 survival point, and an extra gift pack. Eliminating a low-level zombie grants: 5 experience points. One Beginner Broken Brain Core. 55 more experience points needed to level up.

Gasping for breath, Guo Xiaobei slowly stood up, unable to bear looking at the corpse and the headless zombie beside him.

His legs felt a bit weak, but he stomped on the ground a few times and continued walking toward the supermarket, realizing he was late.

Guo Xiaobei felt a bit dejected. No wonder the area had become increasingly quiet. Although he hadn't seen hordes of zombies along the way, he had encountered a fair number in twos and threes, and severed limbs littered the ground. It turned out that many people had already fled, leaving only homebodies like himself to wait for death at home.

Sighing, Guo Xiaobei resigned himself to scavenging. The supermarket had already been ransacked, and almost all the edible items had been taken, not even a single cookie left behind. However, other non-food items were scattered across the floor.

Guo Xiaobei found several large boxes and filled them with scattered items, sorting them into categories like seasonings, rice, flour, oil, and daily necessities. Fortunately, besides these non-edible and non-immediately edible items, he also discovered several cases of drinking water. In addition to mineral water, there were various carbonated beverages.

Since leaving these things here would be pointless, Guo Xiaobei left a few cases of mineral water for those who might come later and packed the rest into his system package.

Luckily, identical items were automatically grouped into a single slot in the system package, while different kinds were packed into the large boxes. Altogether, they occupied about half of the space.

Exiting the supermarket, Guo Xiaobei gulped down from a 1.25-liter bottle of cola. With nothing to eat, he had to use this to fill his stomach.

Recalling the system notification from earlier, it seemed he had obtained something. Guo Xiaobei opened the system package and took out the so-called brain core that lay inside.

It was a semi-transparent white crystal, about the size of two fingers, looking smooth and crystal-clear on the outside. There was a crack on it, extending from the top down to more than halfway.

It looked pretty nice, but thinking about how it had come from the zombie's head made Guo Xiaobei feel nauseous. He took a large gulp of cola, then tossed the still half-full plastic bottle back into his package before casually opening the gift pack he had just received.

The gift pack contained a 500ml bottle of clean water, which left the hungry Guo Xiaobei somewhat disappointed. He didn't want to buy food from the system store because the prices were too high. He wasn't at the point where he would die without eating, so he had to endure for now. He glanced at the crude wooden stick in his hand and casually tossed it into his package, not knowing when he might need it.

Ding. The host has obtained the weapon: Crude Wooden Stick. Equipping it increases strength by 5 points. Please equip it.

Equip?

Guo Xiaobei bit his lip and pondered for a moment. Could it be like a game, where you place it in the equipment slot?

Indeed, that was the case.

Guo Xiaobei nodded in satisfaction. By equipping the wooden stick in the equipment slot, he didn't have to take it out when he needed it, saving a lot of time. Moreover, once equipped, he could summon the stick with a mere thought, and it even felt like it was an extension of his body.

Guo Xiaobei swung the stick in his hand forcefully and smiled with satisfaction.

Walking for a long time is really exhausting, especially for a homebody like Guo Xiaobei. The sky was already bright, and the entire road was clearly visible. The morning wind was a bit chilly, and Guo Xiaobei couldn't help but sneeze.

In the distance, a few more zombies were staggering towards him. Instinctively, Guo Xiaobei stopped in his tracks. It had been so long, and he hadn't seen a single normal person. His mini-map was dotted with scattered light blue points.

As the zombies gradually approached, their broken bodies became faintly visible. Guo Xiaobei twitched his mouth: "I'm a zombie too, what am I afraid of!"

Ding. System Notification: Task menu is now open.

Guo Xiaobei hurriedly opened the task menu, only to see that it was densely packed with over a dozen tasks.

However, all the tasks were marked in white, indicating that the system considered them to be of beginner difficulty. Guo Xiaobei quickly scanned through the tasks and accepted all those that mentioned zombies.

"Zombies, here I come!"

Author’s note: Comrades, dear readers, come up and greet the prince! Why haven’t I seen many people…